Irish Druids And Old Irish
Religions

IRISH GODS

Some writers, from a jealous regard to the reputation of their ancestors,
have been unwilling to acknowledge the idolatry of ancient Erin. They reject the
testimony as to images, and decline to accept the record as to heathen deities.
Yet it is surely a satisfaction to know that the Highest and Unseen was
worshipped at all, though under rude and material symbolism, instead of being
unknown and unfelt.
If claiming to be, in some degree, at least, of Celtic heritage, the Irish
may conceivably be esteemed of kindred faith with Celtic Gauls and Celtic
Germans, whose divinities were recognized by the Romans, though called, from
certain supposed similitude's, by more familiar Italian names.
The Irish, from their geographical position, were a mixture of many peoples,
forming a succession of human layers, so to speak, according to the number of
the newcomers, and the period of local supremacy. The tendency of populations
northward and westward, from wars or migrations, was to carry to Erin various
races from the Continent of Europe, with their different customs and their gods,
having more permanent influence than the visitation of their coasts by Oriental
seamen.
Thus we perceive, in fragmentary traditions and superstitions, the adoration
of the Elements, and the fanciful embodiment of divine attributes in their
phases and their apparent contradictions, In some way or other, the Islanders
failed not to see, with Aristotle, that "the principle of life is in
God." Yet J. S. Mill thought that religion may exist without belief in a
God.
In our investigations, we need bear in mind what the
learned Professor Rhys asserts, that --"most of the myths of the modern
Celts are to be found manipulated, so as to form the opening chapters of what
has been usually regarded as the early history of the British Isles." So we
know of other lands, that their chronicles may be a disguised form of faith,
clad in the mysticism fostered by all priests.
As ancient mythologies, apparently so idle and meaningless, are now perceived
to embody truths, scientific and religious, so the seemingly foolish traditions
of nations, descriptive of their early history, are recognized to convey ideas
more or less astronomical and theological.

___________

NATURE WORSHIP has been regarded as the foundation of all religions.
Aristotle left this remarkable saying, "When we try to reach the Infinite
and the Divine by means of mere abstract terms, are we even now better than
children trying to place a ladder against the sky?" Early man could not
avoid anthropomorphizing the Deity. The god could show himself. He could walk,
talk, come down, go up. Earlier still, man saw the reflection of the godhead in
the sun, the storm, or the productive forces.
Boscawen writes--"The religion of Assyria was in constitution
essentially a Nature worship; its Pantheon was composed of deifications of
Nature powers. In this opinion I know I differ considerably from other
Assyriologists, Mr. Sayce, M. Lenormant and others being of opinion that the
system was one of solar worship." An author speaks of "one great surge
of voluptuous Nature worship that swept into Europe."
According to Pliny--"The world and sky, in whose embrace all things are
enclosed, must be deemed a god, eternal, immense, never begotten, and never to
perish.
To seek things beyond this is of no profit to man, and they transcend the
limits of his faculties." Not a few learned men of our day are satisfied
with Pliny's principles.
That Nature worship is a natural impulse, has been well illustrated in a
pretty story told of a little English girl, whose father was expected home from
sea, and who was seen to take up some water from a basin near her, and say,
"Beautiful water! send home my father here."
We have a right to assume that our island races, existing in the country long
before the arrival of Celts in the west, did indulge in Nature worship, and
continued to do so long after they came to these shores. Even Canute, at the end
of a thousand years after Christ, found occasion to say, that "they worship
heathen gods, and the sun or the moon, fire or rivers, water, wells or stones,
or forest trees of any kind."
Baron d'Holbach said, "The word Gods has been used to express the
concealed, remote, unknown causes of the effects he (man) witnessed." And
Dormer's Origin of Primitive Superstitions declared that, "If
monotheism had been an original doctrine, traces of such a belief would have
remained among all peoples." Lubbock considered the Andaman Islanders
"have no idea of a Supreme Being." Professor Jodi talks of "the
day on which man began to become God." Dr. Carus, while affirming that
"the anthropomorphic idol is doomed before the tribunal of science,"
says, "The idea of God is and always has been a moral idea."
Pictet observes, "There existed very anciently in Ireland a particular
worship, which, by the nature of its doctrines, by the character of its symbols,
by the names even of its gods, lies near to that religion of the Cabirs of
Samothracia, emanating probably from Phnicia." He thought the
Phnicians introduced it into Erin, the Muc Innis, or Holy Isle. Of
this system, Bryant's Ancient Mythology has much to relate.
A French author held that the Celtic religion was based upon a belief in the
dual powers of good and evil in perpetual strife; and that the Irish associated
with this a contradictory pantheism and naturalism, as in the Theogony of Hesiod.
Certainly the Irish called sea, land, or trees to witness to their oaths. The
Four Masters had this passage--"Laeghaire took oaths by the sun, and
the wind, and all the elements, to the Leinster men, that he would never come
against them, after setting him at liberty." The version in the Leabhar-na-Uidhri
is that "Laeghaire swore by the sun and moon, the water and the air, day
and night, sea and land, that he would never again, during life, demand the
Borumean tribute of the Leinster men."
O'Beirne Crowe, at the Archaeological Association, 1869, declared the poem Faeth
Fiada pre-Christian; adding, "That the pagan Irish worshipped and
invoked, as did all other pagan people, the personified powers of Nature, as
well as certain natural objects, is quite true."
The Irish prayer, in the Faeth Fiada, runs thus--"I beseech the
waters to assist me. I beseech Heaven and Earth, and Cronn (a river) especially.
Take you hard warfare against them. May sea-pouring not abandon them till the
work of Fene crushes them on the north mountain Ochaine." And then we are
told that the water rose, and drowned many. This prayer was said to have been
used by Cuchulainn, when pressed hard by the forces of Medb, Queen of the
Connachta.
If the Palæolithic man be allowed to have been susceptible to the
impressions of Nature, the mixture of many races, driven one upon
another in the western corner of Europe, and so coming
in contact with some higher influences, could not be imagined without impulses
of devotion to the mighty and mysterious forces of Nature.

_____________

Our knowledge of so-called Celtic religion has been largely derived from Cæsar
and other Roman authorities. These, imbued with Italian ideas, were not very
reliable observers. They saw Jupiter in one Celtic deity; Mars, Minerva, Apollo,
and Mercury in others. They knew the people after relations, more or less
intimate, with visitors or traders from more enlightened lands. They were
acquainted with Iberians, Germans, and Celts in Gaul, but only partially with
those across the Channel, until Christianity had made some way. The wilder men
of those nationalities, in Ireland and Northern Scotland, were little known;
these, at any rate, had not quite the same mythology as Romans saw in Gaul.
It may be granted that the traditional opinions of the Irish would be more
safely conveyed to us through their early literature, rude as that might be, and
capable of conflicting interpretations,--historical or mythological. In spite of
the obscurity of Fenian and other poets of that remote age, their writings do
furnish a better key to the religion of Erin, than theories founded upon the
remarks, of Roman writers respecting Gaulish divinities. It must, however, be
conceded that, in the main, Ireland consisted of varieties of the three great
ethnological divisions of Gaul, commonly classed as Iberian, German, and Celtic,
and inherited something from each.
A difficulty. springs up from the language in which this early poets wrote.
Like our English tongue, the Irish passed through many phases, and the reading
thereof has occasioned much contention among translators The early
introduction of Latin, Norman-French, and English increased the
obscurity, and hampered the labours of copyists in the Middle Ages, as was the
case with that composite language known now as Welsh.
The god most prominently set forth in early Irish missionary records, in the
Lives of the Saints, and in the ancient Bards, is Crom, Cromm Cruach or Cenn
Crûach, the bleeding head; or Cromm Cruaich, the Crooked or Bent One
of the Mound. As Crom-cruaghair, the great Creator, he has, by some
writers, been identified with the Persian Kerum Kerugher. Crom has
been rendered great; and Cruin, the thunderer. One
considers Cromleac as the altar of the Great God. He is also known as Ceancroitihi,
and the head of all gods. Cromduff-Sunday, kept early in August, was the
festival of Black Crom.
He figures in the several Lives of St. Patrick. At the touch of the Saint's
sacred staff of Jesus, his image fell to the ground. He is associated with Mag
Slecht, a mound near Ballymagauran, of Tullyhead Barony, County Cavan. The Welsh
god Pen Crug or Cruc, Chief of the Mound, answered to the Irish
deity.
He was certainly the Sun-god, for his image was surrounded by the fixed
representations of twelve lesser divinities. Irish imagination pictured the
first of gold, the others of silver. They were certainly stones; and, as Andrew
Lang remarks, "All Greek temples had their fetish stone, and each stone had
its legend." The one surrounded with the twelve would readily suggest the
Sun and the twelve Signs of the Zodiac.
An old reference to Crom has been recorded in Ogham letters, thus translated,
"In it Cruach was and twelve idols of stone around him, and himself of
gold." In the old book Dinseanchus we read thus of Crom Cruach--"To
whom they sacrificed the first-born of every offspring, and the first-born of their children." This record of their heathen
fathers must have been, doubtless, a libel in the excess of zeal. The priests of
Crom were the Cruim-thearigh.
Instead of gold, one story declares the image was ornamented with bronze, and
that it faced the South, or Sun. It was set up in the open air on the Mag
Slechta, says Colgan, the Field of Adoration. They who are not Irish or
Welsh scholars have to submit to a great variety of readings and meanings in
translators.
The mythology has been thus put into verse by T. D. McGee --

"Their ocean god was Menanan Mac Lir,
Whose angry lips
In their white foam full often would inter
Whole fleets of ships.

Crom was their Day god; and their Thunderer,
Made morning and eclipse;
Bride was their queen of song, and unto her
They prayed with fire-touched lips."

Professor Rhys has an explanation of Cromm Cruaich as the Crooked or Bent
one of the Mound; saying--"The pagan sanctuary had been so long falling
into decay, that of the lesser idols only their heads were to be seen above
ground, and that the idol of Cenn Cruaich, which meant the Head or Chief
of the Mound, was slowly hastening to its fall, whence the story of its having
had an invisible blow dealt it by St. Patrick."
The Mother of the Irish gods,--the Bona Dea of Romans--appears to have
been the Morrigan, to whom the white-horned bull was sacred. She was the Great
Queen. Some old poet had sung, "Anu is her name; and it is from her is
called the two paps above Luachair." From her paps she was believed to feed
the other deities, and hence became Mother of the gods. According to another,
she was the goddess of battle with the Tuatha, and one of the wives of the Great
Dagda. She was thought to have her home in the Sighi, or fairy palaces.
The Bona Dea of Rome is said to have been Hyperborean. Hence, observes
Crowe, it may have been Ireland that gave the goddess and her worship to the
Romans. As Ann, she may have been the goddess of wealth. Rea or Reagh:
was, also, Queen of Heaven. Not a few crescents have been found in the
neighbourhood of Castle-reagh. Dr. Keating calls the Moriagan, Badha, and Macha
the three chief goddesses of the Tuath de Danaans.
Her white-horned bull of Cruachan, Find-bennach, was in direct opposition to
the brown bull of Cualnge. She was the goddess of prosperity. She occasionally
appeared in the shape of a bird and addressed the bull Dond. She is the Mor
Riogan, and identified with Cybele.
The Female Principle was adored by the old Irish in various forms. As the Black
Virgin, she is the dark mould, or matter, from whose virgin material all
things proceed. She is the Ana-Perema, of the Phnicians, and the queen
of women. She may be the Brid, Bride or Bridget, goddess of
wisdom, but daughter of the Druid Dubhthach. Several goddesses are like the
Indian Dawn goddesses. Aine, or circle, was mother of all gods. Ri, or
Rol, says Rhys, was "the mother of the gods of the non-Celtic race."
The Celtic Heus or Esus was a mysterious god of Gaul. The Irish
form was Aesar, meaning, he who kindles a fire, and the Creator.
In this we are reminded of the Etruscan Aesar, the Egyptian sun bull Asi,
the Persian Aser, the Scandinavian Aesir, and the Hindoo Aeswar.
The Bhagavat-Gita says of the last that "he resides in every mortal."
Hesus was acknowledged in the British Isles. In one
place he is represented with a hatchet, cutting down a tree. As the Breton Euzus, the figure is not attractive looking. Dom Martin styles Esus or Hesus
"the Jehovah of the Gauls." He was, perhaps, the Aesar, or Living
One, of the Etruscans. Leflocq declares, "Esus is the true god of the
Gauls, and stands for them the Supreme Being, absolute and free." The name
occurs on an altar erected in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, which was found
in 1711 under the choir of Notre Dame, Paris.Sun-gods were as common in Ireland as in other lands. Under the head of
"Sun-worship" the subject is discussed; but some other references may
be made in this place.
The Irish sun-gods, naturally enough, fought successfully in summer, and the
Bards give many illustrations of their weakness in winter. Sun heroes were not
precisely deities, as they were able to go down to Hades. Aengus, the young sun,
whose foster-father was Mider, King of the Fairies, was the protector of the
Dawn goddess Etain, whom he discreetly kept in a glass grianan or
sun-bower, where he sustained her being most delicately on the fragrance and
bloom of flowers. His father was the great god Dagda.
Sun-gods have usually golden hair, and are given to shooting off arrows
(sunbeams), like Chaldæan ones. As a rule, they are not brought up by their
mothers; one, in fact, was first discovered in a pig-sty. They grow very
rapidly, are helpers and friends of mankind, but are engaged everywhere in
ceaseless conflicts with the gods or demons of darkness.
The Irish sun-gods had chariots, like those of the East. They indulged in the
pleasures of the chase, and of fighting, but were more given to the pursuit of
Erin's fairest daughters. Occasionally they made improper acquaintance with darker beings,
and were led into trouble thereby.Grian was the appellation of the sun, and Carneach for the priest
of the solar deity. Strabo mentions a temple in Cappadocia to Apollo Grynæus.
Ovid notes a goddess called by the ancients Grane. The Phrygians had a
god Grynæus. Grane and Baal both refer to the sun. J. T.
O'Flaherty regarded the Irish word Grian as pure Phnician. The Four
Masters inform their readers that "the monarch Laogaire had sworn
ratha-Greine agus Gavithe"; that is, by the sun and wind. Breaking his
oath, he was killed by those divinities. Eusebius held that Usous, King of Tyre,
erected two pillars for worship to the sun and wind.
It has been affirmed by an Erse scholar, that the Irish Coté worshipped the
sun under forty different names. Dal-greine, or sun standard, was
the banner of the reputed Fingal. Daghda was an Apollo, or the sun. He
was also the god of fire.
The Phnicians have been credited as the introducers of Irish solar deities.
Sir S. Rush Meyrick held their origin in these Islands from Arkite sun-worship:
Tydain was the Arkite god, the Lord of Mystery. H. O'Brien, in Phnician
Ireland, Dublin, 1822, spoke of the Irish word Sibbol as "a name
by which the Irish, as well as almost all other nations, designated and
worshipped Cybele;" sibola, an ear of corn, being a symbol of Ceres
and Cybele of the Phnicians. Several supposed Phnician relics, especially
swords, have been discovered in Ireland.
The Gaulish Belenus was known over these Islands. In his temples at
Bayeux and at Bath there were images of the Solar god. He was adored, too, at
Mont St. Michel. A remnant of his worship is seen in the custom of maids washing
their faces in May-morn dew, and then mounting a hill to see the sunrise.
According to Schedius, the word may be rendered 2
+ 8 + 30 + 5 + 50 + 70 + 200 or 365, the period in days of the sun's annual
round. The solar Hercules was represented in Irish by Ogmian or Ogham.
The god of light was ever god of the Heavens.
Belenus was Belus or Belis, from belos, an arrow, or ray, and
therefore a form of Apollo. As Apollo-Belinus, he was the young Sun, armed with
arrows or rays, and was exhibited as a young man without beard, and rays round
his head. As Apollo-Abelios, he was the old or winter sun, having no rays. The
Breton god was Beletucadrus--Mars and Apollo being identical. The votive altar
at St. Lizier bears the names of Minerva and Belisana. Baron
Chaudruc-de-Crazannes, writing upon Belisana, goddess of the Gauls,
observes that Cæsar "had found in Esus, Taranis, Teutates, Camulus,
Belisana, an identity with Jupiter, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and Minerva, of
Greeks and Romans." Belisana, without lance or shield, was called the Queen
of Arrows, i. e. the solar rays. She was represented as thinking profoundly.Samhan, literally servant, is derived from Sam, the sun; so, samh-an,
like the sun. As the Irish Pluto, he is guardian of the Dead. As such, he would
receive the prayers for souls on Hallow Eve. The Arab schams is the sun. Cearas,
god of fire, has a feminine equivalent in Ceara, goddess of Nature. As
the horse was a symbol of the sun, we are not surprised to see it associated
with the god Cunobelin of Gaul, who had the sun's face, with locks of
hair. The Gaulish Cernunnos appeared as an old man with horns on his
head.
Le Blanc, in Etude sur le Symbolisme Druidique, asserts that the name
of Bal-Sab proves that Bâl, Bel, or Beal is the same as the Irish Samhan. Bâl
is the personification. of the sacred fire become visible. The year, the work of
Samhan, the Sun, was known as the Harmony of Beal. Samhan, adds Le Blanc,
"was that idol which the King of Ireland adored after the name of head of
all the gods." In the Psalms we read, "They join themselves to Baal-Peor,
and eat the sacrifice of the dead." This was true of many ancient
countries, and may; perhaps, be applied to Ireland.
A Hymn to Apollo, appearing in the ably conducted Stonyhurst Magazine,
is so beautiful, and so truly descriptive of the sun and fire worship of ancient
Erin, that a verse of it may be transcribed:--

"Pile up the altar with faggots afresh,
The head be off severed--strew wheat and rye,
Pouring libations of wine on the flesh,
That odorous incense ascend the sky!
Ward against
evil,
Guard
of the byre--
Glorious
sun-god--
Prince
of the lyre!
Olympus
compelling
With harmonious
swelling--
Apollo
aeidon!
Worshipped
with fire!"

There was an Irish fish god, associated with caves and storms, with the
attributes of Dagon in the land of the Philistines. Neith, a god of war,
had two wives, Nemain and Fea; these were also styled goddesses of war. The Book
of Leinster names Brian, Tuchar, and Sucharba as gods
of the Tuaths. The Irish Badb is but the Gaulish Badna, and yet
not a goddess of war. Deuc or Ducius was known to St. Austin as
"a libidinous demon." Aou was another Celtic god.Camulus, the Gaulish Mercury, whose image was on the Puy de Dome, was the
Irish Cumall, father of the mythical Finn, and said to be the same as the Welsh
Gwyn, son of Nûd. The Irish Toth was probably a copy of Thoth, or
the Gaulish Teut, god of war. Canobalinos, the Welsh Conbelin, was adored in both isles. Decete is named in Devon,
Anglesey, and South-west Ireland.
Dormer Supposed the deities were first of place, then of peoples. Rhys saw
minor gods as genii locorum and asked what race it was that gave the
Celtic lands its population of spirits. He regarded the mass of divinities as
"very possibly creations of the people here long before the Celts."
The non-Aryan mythology had doubtless great influence on the religion of the
Goiedels.
When St. Patrick tried conversion Upon the King's daughters, Eithne and
Finola, they inquired if his god lived in the hills, valleys, fountains, or
rivers. Seeing his party in white, the princesses concluded they Were men of
Sidhe, or earth divinities.
Some imagine the popular Mithraic faith of the East reached Ireland. It did
gain the shores of Gaul; for, in 1598, a stone cist was dug up near Dijon,
enclosing a glass vessel. Upon the stone was this Greek inscription--"In
the sacred wood of Mithras, this tumulus covers the body of Chyndonax, high
priest. Return, thou ungodly person, for the protecting gods preserve my
ashes."
Chaldæan influence may have been Carried to Erin by Tyrian traders. Very
many terms of divination used there are like those employed in Chaldaic. A Chaldæan
record on physic or divination was found in India in 1765. The Tuaths, so
associated with Irish deities, have been thought to be wandering Chaldees. It is
singular that the Irish Venus was recognized under the names of Bidhgoe Nanu,
and Mathar, which in Persian would be Biducht, Nanea, and Metra.
The circle may represent the universe. The Irish god Ti-mor means the great
circle. He was Alpha and Omega, Α Ω, the perfect Decad or 10, of
Pythagoras. Much was another name for the Great God.
In comparing Irish gods with others, Neit has been identified with the Naat
of India and Neith of Egypt; Creeshna, the sun, with the Indian Christna:
Prith, lord of the air, with Pritha, a title of Vishnu; Ner,
latinized to Nereus, with the Naros of India; Cau, with Caudra;
Omti with the Buddhist Om, Esar with Eswara, &c.
Comhdhia--the middle and end--reminds one of the Orphic hymn--"Zeus is the
first, Zeus is the last: Zeus is the head, Zeus is the middle."
"The god of the Gael," writes Donald Ross," was outside of
him, and draped awfully by his imagination." The Deity everywhere has been
regarded with awe, and even terror, in all religious systems. Pantheism,
however, in some mystical form, entered the mind of the Gael, as well as that of
the Greek and Hindoo. While Orpheus sang, "All has come from the bosom of
Zeus," Finlanders held that their god Kawe was in the bosom of K-unattaris
(Nature).
Some fancy the butterfly--Dealbhaude--was in Ireland a symbol of God, from
its changes of being. Be'al was the source of all being, as the
Scandinavian Tuisco, after whom our Tuesday is named, was the
Father of all beings.
Dr. Todd affirmed--"The Irish had no knowledge of the Dei Gentium,
Saturn, Apollo, Mars, &c., or of the feminine deities Juno, Venus, Minerva,
&c., under any Celtic name or designation." Crowe answered, "Now,
this is not true. The Dei Gentium, under the ancient Gaulish or Iberno-Celtic names, are often met with in Irish story." But Crowe held
with Cæsar and Tacitus, that the Celts of Gaul and our Isles had similar gods
to those of Rome and Greece.
Though the transcribers of the Book of Leinster, during the fifteenth,
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, corrupted the MS., from ignorance more
than design, yet not a few learned men trace in that book the most ancient Irish mythological treatise.
With so fighting a race as that of Erin, war-gods were common. Some were
battle furies, as Nemon, the Nemetona of Gaul. Others were like
Cairbre, whose exploits are narrated by the Four Masters, and who, as a
hero, was, as Prof. Rhys says, "placed on a level with the gods." It
is not easy, however, to discover there those ancient legends which, as Cory's
Ancient Fragments supposes, "recognize as the primary element of all
things, two independent principles, of the nature of male and female; and those
in mystic union, as the soul and body, constitute the Great Hermaphrodite
Deity." There was scarcely that refinement in ancient Ireland.
Dr. Kenealy's Book of God perceives in the Irish Oun or Ain
the cycle, or seasons course; as in Bel-ain, the year of Baal, the sun.
The Irish anius is the astrologer, surveying the cycle. Bay is
regarded as circle or cycle in Irish and Sanscrit. The Irish Cnaimh was,
in Kenealy's View, the Phnician great-winged one, or Cneph of
Egypt. He speaks of "their more ancient manner of invocation being Ain
treidhe Dia ainm Tau-lac, Fan, Mollac or Ain, triple God, whose name is Tau-lac,
Fan, Mollac. This third person was the Destroyer." Fan he places
with Pan or Phanes.
Another fanciful author sees the source of an Irish religious festival in the
Charistita of Romans, a feast sacred to Concord and the Loves
at the end of the year--whence the word Eu-charist. Lenoir is more correct in
saying, "Astronomy is truly the fruitful source from which the Mages and
the priests have drawn ancient and modern fables."
The Rev. R. Smiddy writes of the Celtic Ceal, the heaven; and Cealtach,
a heavenly person. Church, a circle, is swreal, or swrealleacht, the pillared temple of the Druids. He
derives teampul from tiomchal, round, as the sun. Taking Dia
as both god and day, he gets Dia Sol, Dia Luan, Dia Moirt (death),
Dia Ceadion (the first god), Dia Ardion (the high God), Dia Beanion (the woman
god), Dia Satharn (Saturn). After all, we may perceive, with Max Müller, that
"the whole dictionary of ancient religion is made up of metaphor."
The French author of Sirius, who perceives in that star the origin of
all thundering or barking gods, has a god of thunder in the Celtic T-aran,
which is T affix to the sound made by a dog.
"The Celtic priests, or Druids," says he, "who, like the
Egyptian priests, had adopted the Chien-Levrier for a symbol, called
themselves the ministers of an Unknown God, descended, it is said, upon earth,
as Thoth, under a human form, and having all the characteristics of that
Egyptian god, with the head of a dog; benefactor of Humanity,
Supreme--civilizing Legislator, Poet and Musician, King of Bards, Inventor and
Protector of Agriculture, Regulator of Waters, Protector in Darkness, raised to
the Presidency in a circle of stones, Founder of sacred ceremony, Model-priest,
invoked under the name of Father."
All that is very Welsh, and cannot be applied to Ireland. The Welsh Triads
have had claimed for them a greater age than modern critics are disposed to
allow. Many of the Welsh gods therein recorded are of doubtful pagan origin, and
belonged rather to the mysticism that crept into Europe from the East during the
early Middle Ages.
The Irish--except where their Bards came under the influence of the same wave
of oriental or Gnostic learning--of olden time knew little of Addon, the
seed-bearer in himself; Ammon without beginning; Celi, the
mystery; Deon, the just: Duv, he is: Dovydd. regulator; Deon,
separate One; Dwyv, I am; Daw, being; Gwawr, dawn of day; Gwerthevin,
supreme; Ton, source; Tor, one of yore; Nudd, manifest; Perydd,
cause; Rhen, pervader; Rhwyf, overlooker, &c.
There is no mention of their recognition of the Three Attributes--Plennydd,
Alawn, and Gwron, indicated by the three divergent rays. They had
no Circle of Ceugant as the infinite space; nor did they look upon the
cromlech as representing, in three stones upholding the cap-stone, the doctrine
of Trinity in Unity.
We cannot conceive of an Irish bard writing, as did a Welsh bard, of
Ceridwen--"Her complexion is formed of the mild light in the evening hour,
the splendid, graceful, bright, and gentle Lady of the Mystic Song." But we
do know that the early Crusaders brought home much of this mystic talk from the
East, and that ecclesiastics of an imaginative turn were charmed with
pseudo-Christian gnosticism. The Irish pagan, as the Welsh pagan, was ignorant
of such refinement of speech or ideas. The Welsh Archdruid assured the writer of
his belief that so-called pagan philosophy was the source of Bardism, that the
teaching of the Triads was but the continuation of a far older faith in his
fathers.
Ossian more properly pictures the opinions of his race in Ireland and
Scotland, though they are rather negative than affirmative. He, doubtless, never
entered the esoteric circle of Druidism, and is very far from displaying any
tincture of mysticism in his verses.
His gods were hardly spiritual, but vulnerable; as, when Fingal fought the
Scandinavian Deity, that shrieked when wounded, "as rolled into himself, he
rose upon the wind." Yet the gods could disturb the winds and waves, bring
storms on foes, and so destroy them. Dr. Blair was struck with the almost total
absence of religious ideas in Ossian.
Even at the funeral, in Temora, we have only, "Loud at once from
the hundred bards rose the song of the tomb."
He lived in the age of Christianity. Hear the challenge of the wild
Northmen--"Are the gods of the Christians as great as Loda (Odin) of the
Lochlins?" Dr. Donald Clark fancied that in Ossian's day the people had
lost faith in their old Druidic religion, but had not then embraced
Christianity.
The remarks of Dr. H. Waddell are entitled to careful attention. Referring to
Ossian, he says--
"All local gods, to him, were objects of ridicule. He recognized the
Deity, if he could be said to recognize Him at all, as an omnipresent vital
essence, everywhere diffused in the world, or centred for a lifetime in heroes.
He himself, his kindred, his forefathers, and the human race at large, were
dependent solely on the atmosphere; their souls were identified with the air,
heaven was their natural home, earth their temporary residence, and fire the
element of purification, or the bright path to immortality for them when the
hour of dissolution came.--The incremation of Malvina's remains, on the
principle of transmutation, and escape from dark, perishable clay to luminous
and immortal ether, is a beautiful illustration of this."
After all, one is constrained to admit with Ernest Rhys--"I for one am
quite prepared to believe in a Druidic residue, after you have stripped all that
is mediæval and Biblical from the poems of Taliesin." So it is with
Ossian, or other bards of Irish origin. With all that has been accumulating of a
mediæval character, from the hands of supposed transcribers and translators,
there yet remains something of the primeval barbaric conception of religion in
the grand old tales of Erin.
In the Bardic story of the Battle of Gabhra we read--"I return my
thanks to the gods."
This led N. O'Kearney to observe--"From this passage it is evident that
the pure monotheism of the Druids had dwindled down into a vulgar polytheism,
previous to the date of the Fenian era. Historians assert that Tighernmas was
the first monarch who introduced polytheism, and that a great multitude of
people were struck dead. on the worship of strange gods. The sun, moon, stars,
elements, and many animals that were adored by the Egyptians, were introduced as
deities."
Jocelin, an interesting romancer, speaking of Legasius, son of King Neal,
tells the reader that "he swore by an idol called Ceaneroithi, or
the head of all the gods, because he was believed by the foolish people to give
answers."
A periodical called the Harp of Erin, which appeared in 1818, has the
following argument from an old tradition:--"That the Ancient Irish were not
idolaters, we have sufficient evidence to convince any person who is possessed
of common understanding. We are informed that Tighernmas, the King, was the
first who paid divine honors to an idol, and that having been struck by
lightning, his death was considered as a judgment. Surely, if idolatry had been
a common practice of the people, their bards and history would neither have
represented the act of the monarch as a crime, nor his death punishment from
heaven for the offence."
The quotations from Bardic chronicles and poems, made by Prof. Rhys and
others, would not sanction the views of the Harp of Erin. Their Nuada,
Diarmait, Conchobar, &c, were assuredly sun-deities Rhys says of the last
named, "Conchobar was doubtless not a man, his sister Dechtere, the mother
of Cuchulainn, is called a goddess. He was known in the Book of the Dun
as Diaalmaide, or terrestrial god. The river Boyne may have had its name from the goddess Boann,
wife of the Irish Neptune, Nodens.
Adolphe Pictet was formerly regarded as the most learned Celtic scholar in
France. He is very precise in his belief of Irish polytheism, though influenced
too strongly by the Cabiric theory. "The double Cabiric Irish chain,"
says he, "is only the ascending development of the two primitive
principles."
Ordinary people may fail to follow this philosopher in his metaphysical views
concerning the early Irish. They may doubt his progression of six degrees in
Irish masculine and feminine divinities.
He held that Eire, Eo-anu, and Ceara were only the same being in three
degrees of development; that Porsaibhean, daughter of Ceara, was the Greek
Persephone, the Roman Proserpine; that Cearas and Ceara were Koros and his
sister Kore; that Cearas was Dagh-dae, god of fire, and that he was a sort of
demiurgus; that Aesar and Eire or Aeire, as fundamental duality, give birth to
two chains of progressive parallels,--masculine and feminine, fire and water,
sun and moon; that the goddess Lute or Lufe is power and desire, but Luth is
force; that the Midr, children of Daghdae, were rays of God; that Aesar was god
of intelligible fire; that Brighit was goddess of wisdom and poetry, like Nath,
while Aedh was goddess of vital fire.
Much of this might be esteemed by some readers as a pleasing or romantic
philosophy of Irish mythology.

_________________

It may be useful to look at the religion of the Manx, or people of the Isle
of Man, who were, if not Irish, close kinsmen of the same. We take the following
from a Manx poem, first printed in 1778, as dealing with the divinities.

"Mananan beg, hight Mac of Lerr,
Was he the first that ruled the land;
A pagan, and a sorcerer,
He was, at least I understand."

This Mananan, a deity of the Tuath de Danaans, was god of waters; but Mac
of Lir was styled son of the sea. Neid and Bad were gods of
the wind. We are informed by the author that "By the name Gubh or Gobh,
a blaze, fire, &c., the pagan Irish meant to insinuate that Sam-Gubha
were particularly inspired by the solar heat." The motto of old was,
"Let the altar for ever blaze to Daghdae."Easc was the new moon to Manx and Irish. The Irish still say Paternoster
at the new moon, and, crossing themselves, add, "May you leave us as safe
as you found us!" Ce-Aehd was a goddess of Nature. An old poem says,
"There was weeping in the day of Saman Bache." Ceara was the
sun; and Badhh-Be-bad, the god of wind. Brid, daughter of Daghdae, was
the goddess of wisdom and poets; An, the mater dea, Aodh,
goddess of fire. Manx traditions and customs are similar to the Irish.
Sword-worship, in some respects, figured in the past, as with the Huns,
&c. Famous heroes or deities have had the names of their swords preserved,
as in the case of Arthur and Fingal.
Speaking swords occur in the Leb na huidre, as recorded in the Revue
Celtique. Noticing the custom of bringing in the tongues of the slain as
trophies, the Irish MS. Says--"And it is thus they ought to do that, and
their swords on their thighs when they used to make the trophy, for their swords
used to turn against them when they made a false trophy--for demons used to
speak to them from their arms."
Spenser gives this narrative on the fabled power of the
sword; saying, "So do the Irish at this day, when they go to battle, say
certain prayers or charms to their swords, making a cross therewith upon the
earth, and thrusting the points of their blades into the ground, thinking
thereby to have the better success in fight. Also they use commonly to swear by
their swords."

________________

The Fairies or Sides are often presented as deities. As the Tuatha
were largely supernatural, and their spirits haunted the old spots, it is not
surprising that these arrachta or spectres were reverenced by the Irish.
Though St. Patrick drove many of them away, a number fled across Donegal Bay to
the pagans of Senghleann. In St. Fiacc's Story of the Saint we are assured that
the Irish used to worship the Sides.
"This Side worship," wrote Beirne Crowe, "had nothing
to do with Druidism; in fact, was opposed to it, and must have preceded it in
Ireland." They were deified mortals, anyhow, and capable, by intercourse
with women, of producing heroes. But one was hardly justified in declaring that
"the worship of these deities reaches back to the remotest antiquity, to at
least a thousand years before the Druid appeared."
The Sides and the Druids are curiously opposed to each other in legends. The
Side goddess, in the adventures of Condla Ruad, told Coud's Druid that Druidism
had the grades conferred on it in the Great Land or Elysium. It was thought that
their temples were the so-called Druidical monuments, especially New Grange.
They were scattered all over Ireland.
By the Irish Mac Oc, King of the Fairies, living in a glass structure,
is meant the young Sun. Rhys said the Story "doubtless belonged originally
to Irish mythology before any Celts had settled in Ireland."
This Mac Oc, or Aengus, is regarded as the Irish counterpart of Merlin or
Emrys. He is associated with a fairy maiden, in the form of a Swan. He was the
son of the divine King of the Tuaths, and usurped his father's crown, as Zeus
did that of his father Chronos. As in other lands, the domains of heroes and
gods continually encroach upon each other; as divine attributes are bestowed
upon departed chiefs, and divine honours, after the tapu order, are often
paid to living heads of Septs. In no country, perhaps, was there more reverence
given to chiefs, and in none more rigorous obedience exacted from the people by
those who then controlled the very tribal lands.
It may be that this peculiarity of native character would account for the
devotion to Saints in Irish Christian times. Still, it has been pointed out how
tradition has converted honoured heroes or divinities of former days into modern
Saints. This is, at least, a very curious coincidence, and by no means confined
to Ireland, being witnessed in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany.
The great age to which some of these lived, according to such authorities as
The Four Masters, &c., excites attention. St. Diarerca and St. Fechin
continued on earth 180 years; but St. Ciaran, 300; St. Mochta, 300; St.
Sincheall, 330. Their ubiquity is suspicious. Thus, there are 25 St. Shanauns or
Shannons, 37 Moluans, 43 Molaises, 58 Mochuans, 200 Colmans, and a number called
St. Dagan, St. Molach, St. Duil, &c. It is odd to perceive so many provided
with an alias.
"If the ancient Irish," observes Marcus Keane, "belonged to
one great system of mythology, we would naturally expect to find traditions of
different gods of the same system preserved in the same locality. This
accordingly we find to be the case."
Mrs. Wilkes, in Ur of the Chaldees, remarked that many
of the Saints of Ireland bear Aryan and Semitic names. Again, "They (the
missionaries) found it necessary, in many cases, to preserve to the Christian
faith the names of many of the gods and heroes of their forefathers." She
instances St. Molach, St. Dagan, St. Duil, St. Satan, St. Di(ch)ul, St. Cronan,
&c. Another points out that St. Luan is derived from Lune or Lugedus;
St. Bolcain from Vulcan; St. Ciaran from the Centaur Chiron; and
St. Declan from Declain, the Irish god of generation. M. Sonnerat held
that St. Shannon was the god Dearg.
The author of Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland derives St. Diul
from Dia-Baal; St. Maedog from Maedeog of Virginity; and
St. Earc from Earch, the sun. He found 24 with the name of Colomb,
12 of Bridget, 25 of Senan, 12 of Dichul, and 30 of Cronan.
He contended that Irish Hagiology "began to be committed to writing
about the tenth century"; that "in after times when it was thought
desirable to ascribe ancient legends to Christian Saints, all were without
distinction referred to the fifth and sixth centuries, as of course no
celebrated Saint could have been ascribed to a period before St. Patrick, and
that "the ancient literature seems to have been destroyed by the early
Christians."
Although every one cannot be expected to follow Marcus Keane in opinion,
there is much plausibility, if not reason, in the assumption that some of the
Irish Saints were baptized deities of the Island.
Prof. Bevan, in a recent lecture at the Gresham College, showed how the
Celtic gods were Romanized. Ogmius became Mercury; Grannos, Apollo; Caturix or
Camulos, Mars; Bridgit, Minerva; Esas, Jupiter. He thought the Irish religion
was partly of aboriginal forms of belief, and partly Druidic. He considered the
transition from Druidism to Christianity a very gradual one. Lud or Llud, whose temple was on the site of St. Paul's Cathedral, he recognized as the
Irish Nodens.

________________

As the Revue Celtique contains a wealth of learning pertaining to the
mythology of Ireland, some information from that work may be here placed before
the reader.Badb, one of the Irish goddesses of war) had three sisters,
Neman, Macha,
and Morrigan or Morrigu. These are described as Furies, able to confound armies;
even though assuming but the form of a crow. Hennessey thought these three were
separate beings: "the attributes of Neman being those of a being who
confounded her victims with madness, whilst Morrigu incited to deeds of
valour, or planned strife and battle, and Macha revelled amidst the
bodies of the slain." Badb was the daughter, also, of the mythical
Tuatha King Ernmas. She inspired fear, so as to produce lunacy.
Standish O'Grady, in his critical and philosophical History of Ireland,
adduces evidence of the useful labours of the early Irish gods, whom he detects
under the assumed names of heroes. Parthalon was he who cleared from forest the
plain of the Liffey. The Dagda Mor drove back the sea from Murthemney, forming
the district now known as the Louth. Lu taught men first to ride on horses.
Creidené first discovered and smelted gold in Ireland.
When the old original gods of Ireland were driven out by a younger and more
vigorous set of divinities, they retired to Tir-na-n-og, the land of the young;
or to Tirna-m-beo, land of life; or to Tir-na-Fomorah.
The temple of Ned, the war god, was near the Foyle. According to O'Grady,
"The Dagda Mor was a divine title given to a hero named Eocaidh, who
lived many centuries before the birth of Christ, and in the depths of the
pre-historic ages he was the mortal scion or ward of an elder god, Elathan."
He considered the Mor Reega, or great Queen, even more important than the
Dagda Mor. She was connected with wealth, fertility, and war. She could
transform herself into a water serpent, &c.
Then there is Dana, who became Brigit, mother of the three gods,
Brian, Inchar or Incharba, and Inchair. Though the daughter of Dagda or good
god, King of the Tuatha, she was wife to Bress, King of the Fomoré. As goddess
of literature, it was fitting that Ecné, poetry or knowledge, should be
her descendant.
The old form of the goddess Brigit is thought to have been Brigentis.
Four inscriptions to her have been found on the east of Ireland. The god Brian
was formerly Brênos.
The writings of Arbois de Jubainville, in the Cours de la littérature
Celtique, have been justly admired. As he regarded the stories concerning
the migration of early races, and the narratives of heroes and heroines, as
having a mythological side, his views of Irish gods are interesting.
When Parthalon arrived in Ireland, the country was far from complete in form.
At Mag Itha he had a battle with Cichol Gri-cenchos. The word cenchos, without
feet, suggested Vitra, the Vedic god of evil, who possessed neither feet nor
hands. He was assisted by men with only one foot and one hand, like Aja
Ekapad, the one-footed, and Vyamsa, the shoulderless demon, of the Hindoo
Vedas. Parthalon, by that victory, freed Ireland from foreign Fomoré. All his
race, 5000, were struck dead by the gods in one day. So was the Silver Age
destroyed by the anger of Jupiter against Niobe.
The chronicler had no record of years, but of days. Parthalon arrived on the
first of May, the festival of the god of death, Beltené, ancestor of the
human race. In older Erse MSS. he is described as the son of that deity. He gained the shore
in Kenmare river, opposite the setting sun, where dead Celts recovered their
lives.
The god Dagda, Dago-devo-s, the good god, yet King of the
Tuatha de Danaans, was the Zeus or Ormazd of Irish mythology. The Danaans, or
people of God, were, like the Devas of India, gods of the day, light, and
life. The Fomoré, their enemies, represent the Titans of Greek story, whose
chief Bress, Balar, or Tethra, was identical with the Persian Ahriman, the Vedic
Yama, or even Varuna.
The Fomoré are, says Jubainville, "the gods of the dead, of night, and
of storms." On the other hand, the Tuatha "are the gods of life, of
day, and of the sun, constituting another group, the less ancient of the gods,
if we believe the doctrine of Celts; for, following the Celtic theory, night
preceded day."
The Fomorian gods of earth and night were spoken of by the Christian
chroniclers as pirates ravaging the coast. But the Book of Invasions
simply mentions their arrival by sea. They must have been monsters, for a work
treating of them had for its title the History of Monsters. Even Geraldus
Cambrensis translated Fomoré by Gigantibus.
Among the stories told of them was the one giving some Fomorians but one foot
and one hand, while others were goat-headed. The tale told of their Kings
exacting the tribute of two-thirds of corn and milk, and two out of three
children born in a family, reminds us of the Greek Minotaur. The Fomoré seem to
belong to the beginning of all things, since no Irish legend knows of anything
before their coming.
Our French author, who had much to report on solar gods, has the following
remarks upon the lunar deity:--
"The queen of night is the moon, which, among the
stars, is distinguished by the crescent form, under which she usually
presents herself to our notice. The god of night is distinguished from other
gods by a crescent placed upon his forehead, and this crescent is transformed
into the horns of the calf, the bull, or the goat. Hence, in the Prometheus
of Æschylus, Io, the horned virgin, becomes, later on, a heifer; hence,
in the Athenian fable, the conception of the Minotaur with the head of a bull;
hence, in the Irish fable, the conception of the Fomoré with the goat's
head;--and, upon the continent of Gaul, the numerous horned gods which now
ornament the Salle of St. Germain Museum. For to render to these gods of the
dead the worship they exact, it was necessary to immolate to them human
lives."
We are told that Greeks poets and painters gave distinct characteristics to
gods, as Phaeton, Apollo, and Hercules, originally the same. The ancient
literature of Ireland lacks these well-defined contours.
The dual idea of good and bad gods, with good and bad tribes, corresponds
with the Dasyu of India, who were both demons and the hostile tribes
preceding the Aryans in that peninsula. The Irish triad is produced by
the habit of using three synonyms to express the same mythological thought.Lug, one of the Tuatha gods, nursed by the Queen of the Fir-Bolgs, is
supposed to have introduced games, races, &c. His festival was August 1. It
has been suggested that the festival on the same day, in honour of Augustus, was
only a new form of a more ancient custom. Lug's mother was Ethniu, daughter of
Balar, but his father was the god Dagda.
Balar Balebeimnech, "Balar of the strong blows," was said to have
been killed by his grandson. He carried off the cow of the three brothers,
smiths of the Tuatha. Balar was killed by Lug. He is sometimes called the son of the bull-faced god. Lug
and he may be compared with Bellerophon and the Chimæra. A doublet of Balar is
see in Tigernmas.
Cûchulainn, the son of Lug, was a deified hero. His remarkable adventures
formed the subject of many bardic songs. Labraid, of the swift hand on the
sword, was the King of Hades, the Irish Pluto. Being assisted against his
foes by the mighty Cûchulainn, he presented the her with his sister-in-law,
Fand, for a wife; and she returned with the warrior from Hades. But Cûchulainn
paid other visits to the world of spirits, with a view of rescuing friend from
Hades, and returning to Erin. He had the deity Lug for his father, and the
goddess Dechtere for his mother. As an Apollo, he was beardless; yet, when
re-born, he appeared with long hair (rays). He released a maiden changed into a
swan, being the goddess of Dawn. N. O'Kearney, translator of the Conn-eda story,
found that the Irish hero was so beloved, that people would not "swear an
oath either by the sun, stars, or elements, except by the head of Conneda."
Nuada, the Welsh Nudd or Lludd, must not be confounded with Net, god of war.
He is declared by Rhys "of the non-Celtic race in both Britain and Ireland;
for an old inscription in the county of Kerry gives the name without a
case-ending, and so marks it as a probably non-Celtic word." In his Celtic
Britons the same writer notes another deity; speaking of "the sea god Nodens,
who was of sufficient importance during the Roman occupation to have a temple
built for him at Lydney, on the western side of the Severn, while the Irish
formerly called the goddess of the Boyne his wife."
The Feast of Goibniu, which assured immortality to the Tuatha, consisted
principally of beer, a more common drinks than nectar or ambrosia,
but which had a similar power of raising the
consumer in his own estimation. Goibniu, the smith, was the brewer of this
magical drink for the gods. Ogmé, founder of oghamic writing, was called the sun-faced.
He was the son of Elada, whose name means poetic composition, or knowledge. His
brother Dian-cecht, the god of rapid power, was long the Tuath god of medicine.
The deities, when they desired to make themselves visible, appeared as birds.
The Fomoré gods were seen as crows or ravens. As Chronos was King of the world
at the time of the Golden Age, so Bress, King of the Fomoré ruled awhile even
over the Tuatha, who represent the Greek golden race.
It is well to conclude with M. Jubainville, that "the gods of the Gauls
(or Irish), like those of the Romans, are, to our eyes, a creation of the
human mind." It may be also added that usually the gods rise from low types
to higher. Still, Lubbock assures us that "religion, as understood by the
lower savage races, differs essentially from ours; nay, it is not only
different, but even opposite." Some may be disposed to fancy the same of
the more ignorant in Christian lands.

__________________

In connection with Irish idolatry, the question of sacrifices to the gods
needs some consideration.
We may assume that the lower animals may have been so offered; as, black
sheep to Samhan on November 1, and firstlings to the god Crom. But whether the
Irish ever had human sacrifices has been much debated. Such a practice we know
existed in both civilized and uncivilized countries. It prevailed with
worshippers of Baal, with American Indians, with Khonds, and other tribes of
India, &c. In Deut. xii. 30, we read, "Their sons and their
daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods." The animal
sacrifice may be but a survival of the human.
Cæsar was positive as to the Gauls and Britons doing so. Strabo,
Plutarch,
and others said the same. Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius opposed the Druids on
account of that cruelty. Yet the Archdruid Myfyr exclaimed--"They never
wrought an atonement for sin by the sacrifice of bloody carcases of any
kind." The writer has heard the learned Welsh Druid affirm this in most
earnest tones. He would not admit so degrading a practice for his Druids.
Yet Nennius tells how Vortigern, seeking to build a fort, was constantly
annoyed by spirits running off with the stones; and how he was told by his
Druids to get a fatherless boy, kill him, and sprinkle his blood upon the
foundation of the buildings. Similar stories are mentioned in relation to
Jericho, and to the erection of even Christian ecclesiastical edifices.
O'Curry affirms that there is "no instance of human sacrifices at any
time in Erin." There is only one known text referring to the custom in
Ireland, which occurs in the Dinnsenchus. Both men and women were liable
to be burnt to ashes for certain crimes, but not in worship. The Lives of St.
Patrick do not mention such offerings, though the Book of Leinster and
Lucan's verses note their ancient service. Elton thought that some of the
penalties of the ancient laws seemed to have originated in an age when criminals
were offered to the gods.
Some old poem upon the Fair of Tailté, a pagan cemetery, has it--

"The three forbidden bloods--
Patrick preached therein (i.e. the fair)
Yoke oxen, and slaying much cows,
Also by (against the) burning of the firstborn."

There was, however, in Leitrim a Plain of Shrieking, and Magh-sleacth
was the place of slaughter.
In an article, contributed to an antiquarian periodical, in 1785, concerning
the Irish mountain Sliabh Croobh, we find the following:--
"On its summit still remain the vestiges of Druid worship, the rude
altar, and the sacred well, and that during the era of Druidical government,
their priests were not only the judges, but executioners of those who were
doomed to death either as delinquents, or victims of sacrifice. I am inclined to
suspect that it was anciently styled Sliabh cro abh; cro
signifying death, and abh the point of a weapon,--and as a spot destined
for human slaughter, might bear the appellation of the mountains of final death.
A stone hatchet, and undoubtedly a sacrificial one, belonging to the Druids, was
dug up at the foot of this mountain a few years ago, and is in Lord Moira's
possession."
To show how wide-spread was the custom of human sacrifices, we may quote the
list of nations adopting it, as given in the work Indo-Aryans, by
Rajendralala Mitra. This includes the "Phnicians, Carthaginians, Druids,
Scythians, Greeks, Trojans, Romans, Cyclops, Lamiæ, Sestrygons, Syrens,
Cretans, Cyprians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Jews, Aztecs, Khonds, Toltecs,
Tezcaucans, Sucas, Peruvians, Africans, Mongols, Dyaks, Chinese, Japanese,
Ashantis, Yucatans, Hindus." He adds--"The Persians were, perhaps, the
only nation of ancient times that did not indulge in human sacrifices."
If, then, O'Curry, and other Irish writers, object to such a charge being
made against their rude forefathers, it must be allowed that the latter would
have been in, at least, respectable and numerous company.

_______________

The astronomical side of idolatry should not be passed over. It has been
maintained, with much learning, that all tales of gods and goddesses, in
all lands, can be traced to ideas connected
with the heavenly bodies, and their several movements. The writer's old colonial
friend, Henry Melville, nearly half a century ago, read Lemprière's stories of
the deities on astronomical lines. Upon the Celestial Atlas he moved his
cardboard masonic tools, bringing the figures of various constellations
together, so as to explain the particular story. Later on, he discovered a
system of interpretation, as certain and infallible, which he called the Laws
of the Medesand Persians, as they were unalterable.
Melville had no opportunity of explaining the stories of Irish bards upon his
plan. Vallencey, Jubainville and others have attempted it on other and
theological lines. But if the stories could be treated at all astronomically,
the interest in them would be increased, as showing their derivation from other
and more enlightened lands. The great puzzle is, however, how several and such
different keys manage to turn the same lock. But, as remarked by the Rev. Geo.
St. Clair, "time will make the secret things plain and patent"
It may not be wrong, therefore, to trace in those Irish legends the existence
of ancient and Oriental learning of a more or less astronomical character.
The Irish had a notion of the week, or seven days' period. That may have come
from the East, meaning the sun, the moon, and the five then known planets. One
has supposed that five were named after the Romans, and two from the Belgæ. But
the Woden day was changed to Gaden; and Thursday to Tordain,
or Torneach, thunder, or the spirit of Tor or Thor.
Schiegel says--"Among the Greeks and Romans, the observation of the days of
the week was introduced very late." And yet they were well known long
before in Babylon. The Phnician, characterized by Sayce as the link between
Chaldæan and Hebrew, may have been the means of introducing the week to Ireland.
The twelve signs of the zodiac were not unknown to the Irish. They were ever
like the ladder, with six steps upward, and six downward. Mazzaroth, the
twelve, is in the Arabic manzeel, a house or dwelling. The Targumists and
Rabbins employed the words tereysar mazzalaya for the Signs. Philo called
the dodecahedron a perfect number. "It is to honour that sign," adds
Philo, "that Moses divided his nation into twelve tribes, established the
twelve cakes of the shewbread, and placed twelve precious stones around the
ephod of the pontiffs."
On the Irish zodiac, above the figures representing the Signs, the Irish
letters were placed. The figure in the Sagittarius was a deer's body with
a man's head. That in the Scales had legs, but no feet. The Virgin
was standing, apparently spinning, being fully clothed, even to shoes. Aquarius
was seen with a very long body, but short, thin legs and feet.

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The Phnician presence was to be, also, traced in Ireland by the remarkable
evidences of Baal worship. Of this the Irish language and Irish customs bear
witness.
Thus,--we have Beal-agh, fire of Baal, in the Giant Ring at
Belaugh,
Co. Down, four miles from Belfast, 579 ft. in diameter. There is Bal-Kiste,
or Baal, Lord of the chest or ark; Meur-Bheil, the finger of Be'il; Belí,
god of fire; Baal Tinne, for the summer solstice; Suil-Beal,
oracle of Druids; Bealtime, the Baal month.
Four miles north of Cork is Beal-atha-magh-adhoir,--the field for the
worship of Baal. Sliabh-bulteine was the hill of Bel. The ark-Breith,
a covered coracle, was drawn by oxen. The old Irish name for the year was Bealaine
or Bliadhain, the circle of Baal.
The Bel-tor of Dartmoor, the Belenus of Gaul, the Beal
of the Gaedhil, the Bali of India, the Belus obelisk of Pomona in
Orkney, the Bealtien cake of Scotland, the Bel-eg, priest or
learned one of Brittany, the Punic Bal--all take us outside of Ireland.
But Camden declared the cromlech on Sliabh Greine, hill of the sun, was to Beli.
As reported by J. J. Thomas--"The Irish expression 'Bal mhaithart'--May
Bel be propitious to thee! or Bal dhia dhuit, the god Bal .to you! were
deemed complimentary addresses to a stranger along the sequestered banks of the
Suir, in the South of Ireland, about twenty-two years ago."
There can he no doubt about this Baal worship being connected with
Phallicism. Devotion to generative powers preceded, perhaps, that to the sun, as
the main cause of production in Nature; but the Baal development appeared later
on in the so-called march of civilization. An increased fondness for ritual is
generally taken for an evidence of refinement.
This Phallic exponent has been conspicuous in the Bal-fargha, or Bud,
of the Island of Muidhr, off the coast of Sligo, represented as similar to the Mabody
of Elephanta in India, where the argha was an especial object of worship,
and which was seen by the writer, in Bombay, as still an object of religious
devotion. There was on the Irish island a wall of large unmortared stones, some
ten feet high, and of a rude circular form, having a low entrance. The Bud,
or Linga, was surrounded by a parapet wall.
Innis Murra, an islet about three miles from the Sligo coast, has always been
held sacred. In that, the area of this Bal-fargha, or argha, of rough
stone-work, is 180 feet by 100, in its oval shape. To preserve its devotional
character, three Roman Catholic chapels have been erected on the Isle. The
holy ground is used as a cemetery; but the males are buried
apart from the females. For some reason, a wooden image of St. Mobs is placed
there for the regard of worshippers.
As is well known, the snake has been associated with amatory sentiments in
nearly all countries, and has for thousands of years. been a favourite form of
ornament with women. Now, opposite this island, once given up to sexual worship,
the limestone coast has been worn into shapes often tortuous or serpentine.
Tradition asserts that this is the spot where St. Patrick cast the snakes of
Ireland into the sea; that is to say, in other words, that Christianity
extirpated the libidinous deities.
Irish literature notices the presence of two religious sects once existing in
the country; viz. those who adored fire, and those who adored water. The first
were Baalites; the second Lirites. The Samhaisgs were of
the one, and Swans of the other. O'Kearney, in his observations upon this
peculiarity of the past, incidentally shows the antiquity of faction fights in
Ireland; saying, "It is probable that very violent contentions were once
carried on in the Island by the partizans of the rival religions, who were
accustomed to meet, and decide their quarrels, at the place set apart for
battles." In later and Christian times, when Ireland had a multitude of
independent bishops, under no ecclesiastical supervision, disputes of a more or
less theological kind are said by the ancient historians to have been settled by
their followers in the same fashion.
As the population of Ireland is, perhaps, the most mixed, in racial descent,
of any in the world, it is not surprising that this Island should exhibit a
greater variety of religions, several of which have left their traces in the
traditions and superstitions of out-of-the-way localities.
That Buddhism should have found a foothold there is not surprising, since
Buddhist missionaries at one era had spread over much of the Northern
hemisphere. Though the reader may find in this work, under the heading of
"Round Towers," references to this Oriental faith, some other
information may be here required.
Whenever it came, and however introduced, Buddhism, as it was taught in its
early purity, was a distinct advance upon previously existing dogmas of belief.
It was a vast improvement upon Baal worship, Hero worship, or Nature worship, as
it carried with it a lofty ethical tone, and the principle of universal
brotherhood. Though there is linguistic as well as other evidence of its
presence in Ireland, it may be doubted if the labours of the foreign
missionaries had much acceptance with the rude Islanders.Cnox Buidhbh, Budh's hill, is in Tyrone. A goddess of the Tuatha was
called Badhha. Budhbh, the Red, was a chief of the Danaans.
Buddhist symbols are found upon stones in Ireland. There are Hills of Budh in
Mayo and Roscommon. Fergus Budh or Bod was a prince of Brejea. He was Fergus of
the fire of Budh. Budh or Fiodh was the sacred tree.
Vallencey, the fanciful Irish philologist, was a believer in the story of
Buddhist visitations. He found that Budh in Irish and Sanscrit was wise;
that Dia Tait was Thursday, and the day between the fasts (Wednesday and
Friday), Wednesday being a sacred day in honour of Budh in India, showing that
"they observed Budhday after Christianity was introduced." La
Nollad Aois, or La Nollad Mithr, December 24th, was sacred to Mithras
the Sun; to which he quotes Ezek. iv. 14. Eire aros a Niorgul alluded to
the crowing of Nargal, the cock of Aurora, which was sacrificed on December
25th, in honour of the birth of Mithras, the Sun.
He further shows that the Oin-id lamentation for the Dead was kept in
Ireland on the eve of La Saman, the day of Saman, the Pluto or Judge of
Hell, November 1st (All Saints), as in several other heathen lands of antiquity.
He sees a new reckoning on Mathair Oidhehe, the eve before La Nollah
Mithr. The Sab-oide, or festival of Sab, the Sun, was held on
the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 23rd of the month, as with the Sabbaths of the Persian
Magi. He was not then aware that Sabbath, day of rest, was an old Chaldæan
word. He recognizes Christmas Eve in Madra nect, or Mother night.
Buddhism abolished caste and sacrifices. The Tripitaka, or Bible,
contains 592,000 verses. The last Buddhist council was held 251 B.C.
Dr. Kenealy observes, in his Book of God, "The Irish hieratic
language was called Ogham (pronounced owm), which is the same as
the Buddhist and the Brahmin Aum, and the Magian and Mexican horn, or
ineffable name of God. This last, the Greek changed into A O M, Α Ω,
or Alpha and Omega." W. Anderson Smith, in Lewisiana, reluctantly
acknowledges, "We must accept the possibility of a Buddhist race passing
north from Ireland." Thus he and others must trace the relics of Buddhism
in Scotland and the Hebrides through Ireland. Truly, as Fergusson writes,
"Buddhism, in some shape or other, or under some name that may be lost, did
exist in Britain before the conversion of the inhabitants to Christianity."
Hanloy, Chinese interpreter at San Francisco, who claims the discovery of
America for his countrymen, that left written descriptions of the strange land,
has this additional information--"About 500 years before Christ,
Buddhist priests repaired there, and brought back the news that they had met
with Buddhist idols and religious writings in the country already. Their
descriptions, in many respects, resemble those of the Spaniards a thousand years after."
In the vaulted stone building at Knockmoy, Galway Co., assumed by some to
have been a temple of the Tuatha, and next which sacred spot an abbey was
subsequently erected, is a figure, taken for Apollo, bound to a tree, pierced
with arrows, yet slaying the Python with his dart. Other three figures
represent, in their crowns and costume, Eastern divinities, before whom another
person is approaching. These have been conjectured to be the three, Chanchasm,
Gonagom, and Gaspa, who obtained the perfect state of Nirvana before the birth
of Godama, founder of Buddhism.

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The mythological figures to be seen at the chapel of Cormac, the King and
Bishop of Cashel, are not less strange in a Christian edifice than the heathen argha
witnessed on a banner in some English churches. They are, to say the least, in a
novel situation.
The Lion of Cashel, with its tail over its back, and a head partly
human, is confronted by a centaur shooting an arrow. The figure's helmet is said
to be like that of an Irish warrior in the tenth century. The two mythological
hares devouring foliage of the shamrock appearance, present a more striking
character. Anna Wilkes was led to exclaim--"The supposed Cuthite remains at
Cashel bear striking resemblance to some of the Ninevite sculptures; Nergal or
Nimrod, the winged lion, as exhibited in the British Museum, is a remarkable
imitation of the winged lion of Cashel."
Were these, and similar sculptures, survivals of older faiths in the minds of
the artists? They were not fancies of their own, but they reflect past phases of
heathenism Superstitions ever indicate former beliefs.
It is not a little surprising to notice, in the ancient
writings of Irish Churchmen, so few references to the idolatrous practices of
their countrymen. In the catalogues of the Dublin Museum of the Irish Academy
one finds expression of the same wonder in these words: "The ecclesiastical
chroniclers of the period, in their zeal for the establishment of Christianity,
would appear to have altogether ignored the subject of pagan worship." It
is this silence which has led so many persons to doubt the idolatrous customs of
the early Irish, or to be very sceptical as to the nature of the gods they
worshipped.
The Akkadian religion of Assyria throws some light upon Irish faiths. Major
Conder, referring to the inscriptions of Tell Loh, thought they proved "the
piety of those ancient Akkadian rulers, and showing that the deities adored
represented the sun and moon, the dawn and sunset, with the spirits of the
mountains, the sea, the earth, and of hell." Elsewhere he says, "As
regards the deities adored, they evidently include heaven, hell, the ocean, the
sun and moon, the dawn, and the sunset." This was in Ur of the Chaldees,
but long before Abraham's time.
The Major was struck with another inscription--"I have made the Pyramid
temple to the Lord of the heavenly region. To Tammuz, Lord of the Land of
Darkness, I have built a Pyramid temple." He further adds--"The
Akkadians and Babylonians believed in pairs of deities inhabiting the various
kingdoms of the gods." Others have detected the same duality in the
divinities of Ireland. The Druidical three rods, or rays of light, have been
compared to a Phnician Trinity--the three sons of Il, and called Elohim.
Morien contends that Jehovah is represented in Druidism by the three letters, I
A O.
It is curious to note the remains of a very ancient building on the Hebridean
Harris Island, known locally as the temple. of Annait, and a similar one at Skye, afterwards
becoming the Church of the Trianade, or Trinity. We are reminded of the Tanat
or Tanath of the Phnicians, the Anaietis of the Lydians, the Aphrodite Tanais
of the Babylonians. How such mysteries got to the Hebrides need not surprise us.
Two races left their descendants in those Islands--the Norwegian and the Irish;
the latter spread over the islets and coastline of Western Scotland, and carried
thither the popular creed of the migration era.

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Sir W. Jones considered that "the whole crowd of gods and goddesses
meant only the powers of Nature." Adolphe Pietet proceeds on the following
lines--"From a primitive duality, constituting the fundamental force of the
Universe, there arises a double progression of cosmical powers, which, after
having crossed each other by a mutual transition, at last proceed to blend in
one Supreme Unity, as in their essential principles; such, in a few words, is
the distinctive 'character of the mythological doctrines of the ancient
Irish."
As elsewhere mentioned, the Irish Saints are traditionally mixed up with
matters connected with former deities. Thus, Ledwich, in his Antiquities of
Ireland, is induced to exclaim, "Very few of the Saints who adorn our
legends ever had existence, but are personifications of inanimate things, and
even of passions or qualities." St. Thenew or Mungo, patron Saint of
Glasgow, was but a metamorphosed divinity of the same race. He was born of a
virgin, a proof of her goddess-ship. His miraculous powers were like those of
Irish gods, being exerted over Nature's laws. His rod was the Druidical
hazel-branch, which burst into flame after his breathing upon it. Thus we see
the river Shannon, once an object of worship, remembered under the name of St.
Senanus; and the mountain Kevn of Glendalough, also adored, become the Saint
Kevin.
The strange mixture of heathenism and Scripture has
struck many inquirers. Meyrick's Druidical Religion during the residence
of the Romans, points to this strange union in Britain. It was his opinion
that "at the commencement of the fourth century, the Druids felt a common
cause with the Roman priests in the extermination of Christianity."
Bergmann detected the same influence in Snorre's Scandinavian Fascination of
Gulfi. He separated the two elements for us. Leflocq remarked the mixture in
the "transferring the gods themselves, and placing in the mouth of Odin an
echo of the language of Moses." He might well say, "We are surprised
to find the teaching of Genesis, and the morals of the Evangelists, in a book of
the Eddas." Many may be equally surprised at the same in the MSS. of Erin.
"The Druids and Bards of these far-reaching bardic times," says
Mrs. Bryant, "were practically heretics with respect to the more ancient
forms of religious idea, which linger without meaning in the Irish peasants'
tenacious memory, or adhere to his habits by the same persistence of
conservative instinct."
While the cultured Egyptians, Assyrians, Hindoos, Jews, and Greeks, bowed to
other gods than the First Cause, no Irishman need be astonished at a
similar weakness in his half-civilized ancestors. It might be that the moral
infirmities of the former were greater than those in the men and women of old
Erin.